us-005578-irn37658-irn39863
title: L'Enfant Jesus Miraculeux de Prague [Miraculous Infant Jesus of Prague] medallion given to an young Austrian Jewish woman
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
record resource extent: overall: Height: 16.375 inches (41.593 cm) | Width: 0.750 inches (1.905 cm)
archival history: The medallion was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2009 by Nina Kaleska.
has or had holder: us-005578
has end date: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/dates/1946-12-31
scope and content: Religious medallion that was a parting gift to 17 year old Nina Kaleska when she left Prague for London in 1946. It was given to her by Vaclav Ruziczka, whom she met on a park bench soon after she arrived in the city where she had no contacts. He helped her find a place to live and to work. Nina had decided to go to Prague in June 1945, following her May 1945 liberation during the Retzow death march by the Russian Army. She had no surviving relatives in Europe and went to Prague to try to find a friend that she had made in the concentration camps. In 1941, when she was 12, Nina was forced into the Jewish ghetto in Grodno, Poland, with her parents and older sister, Sala, who was 17. The girls evaded several evacuation transports from the ghetto, but on January 20, 1943, Nina and Sala were deported to Auschwitz. Her sister fell ill and died within a few months. Nina was in the camp for 2 years. Some time in 1944, she was moved to Ravensbrück and then to Retzow-am-Rechlin. The camp was evacuated in May 1945 with a death march as Russian forces approached. Nina stayed in Prague for about a year, then left for London in 1946. She joined her only known relative, an aunt, in the United States in 1950.
has or had some members with language: fra
biographical history: Nina Kaleska (Nelly Kalecka) was born on April 11, 1929, in Grodno, Poland, to Zelig Chaim and Rachiel Kalecka. Her older sister Sala was born in 1924. Her father was forester and they had a comfortable home life. The family was religiously observant and Nina attended both Hebrew and Polish public schools. She and her sister also received music, dance, and drama lessons. In September 1939, after the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, the eastern part of the country, where Grodno was located, was occupied by the Soviet Union. The Russian authorities sought out children with special talents and they began to oversee both sisters’ careers. Nina performed as soloist with major choirs and choreographed ballets; her sister was a competitive gymnast and musical performer. Both sisters had blond hair and blue eyes and were not often recognized as Jews, but were very aware of the strong antisemitism in Poland. In June 1941, Nina and Sala were returning from a national school competition in Bialystok, when bombs began falling near the train as Germany attacked the Soviet Union. German forces occupied the town and Nina and her family were forced into a Jewish ghetto. Around November 1942, there was a large scale round-up and ghetto residents were loaded onto trucks. The sisters were separated from their parents and evaded this and subsequent transports by hiding in attics and closets. They worked in a tobacco factory and shared a cot in the home of a friend who had been deported. They were found during a January 20, 1943 raid and loaded onto crowded train cars. There was no food or water and people died around them during the journey. When they arrived at Auschwitz concentration camp, Sala noticed that nearly all of the 2500 passengers were being sent to one side; she told her sister to join the small group on the other side. Nina thinks that she was spared because she had on a long coat of her mother’s that covered her face and hid the fact that she was only thirteen. Nina w…
has record set type: Item
has beginning date: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/dates/1946-01-01
results or resulted from: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn37658-irn39863/acquisitions/1
has or had identifier: http://lod.ehri-project-test.eu/units/us-005578-irn37658-irn39863/alternateIDs/1
conditions of use: No restrictions on use
identifier: irn39863
type: RecordSet
is or was included in: us-005578-irn37658
physical characteristics and technical requirements: Oval, silver colored, metal medallion with an embossed image of Mary, the mother of Jesus, as Queen of Heaven, holding the Infant Jesus. Mary is ornately dressed and wears a crown emanating rays of light. There is a French inscription embossed around the edge. The reverse has a flower border and a fleur-de-lis in the center with French text embossed around it. A metal loop at the top attaches it to a suspension ring attached to a brown cord.